The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-05-07
IMMORTAL LIFE.

To my mind, this is the great proof
Of immortality-the fact that it is
written in human nature; written
there 80 plain that the rudest nations
have not failed to fnd it, to know it
written just as much as form is writ
ten on the circle and extension on mat
ter in general. 1t comes to our con-
sciousness as naturally as the notions
of time and space. We feel it as de-
sire; we feel it as fact. What is thus
in man is writ there of God, who writes
no lies. To suppose that this universal
desire has no corresponding gratifica-
tion is to represent him not as the
Father of all, but as only deceiver. |
feel the longing after immortality, "a
desire essential to my nature, deep as
the foundation of my being. | find the
.-salaa@ assiEs~Alaa4.sll .neis< -faAl Al.enau,
scious of Immortality that I am not to
die,-no, never to die, though often to
change. l cannot believe this desire
and consciousness are felt only to mis-
lead, to beguile, to deceive me. Iknow
God is my Father, and the Father of
the nations. Can the Almighty deceive
his children ? For my own part, l can
conceive Of nothing which shall make
me more certain of my immortality. [
ask no argument from learned lips. No
miracle could make me more sure; no,
not if the sheeted dead burst cerement
and shroud, and rising forth from their
honored tombs stood bere before me-
the disenchanted dust once more en-
chanted with that fiery life; no, not If
the souls of all my sires since time be-
gan came thronging round, and with
miraculous speech told me they lived
and l should also live. I could only
say, II knew all this before why waste
your heavenly speech p'' have now
indubitable certainty of eternal life.
Death, removing me to the next state,
can give me infallible certainty.
-. There are great many things
true which no man as yet can prove
true, some things so true that nothing
can make them palmer or more plainly
true. 1 think it is so with this doc
trine, and therefore, for myself, ask no
argument, With my views of man, of
God, of the relation between the two, l
want no proof, satisfied with my own
consciousness of immortality -.
The idea of immortality, like the
idea of God, in certain sense is born
in us and fast as we come to conscious
ness of ourselves we come to conscious
ness of God, and of ourselves as i'm
mortal. The higher we advance in
wisdom, goodness, piety, the larger
place do God and immortality hold in
our experience and inward life. think
that is the regular and natural process
of mans development. Doubt of
either seems to me an exception, an ir-
regularity.
W ANN ASA IL Jul SOhoSAOub1 oNNlalY anu
increased activity shall take we know
not. We know of that no more than
before our birth we knew of this world,
of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and
touch, or the things which they reveal.
We are not born into that world, have
motifs senses yet. This we know that
the same God, all-powerful, all-wise,
all-good, rules there and then, as here
and now. Who cannot trust him to do
right ana best for all ? For my own
part, 1 feel no wish to know how or
where or what shall be hereafter. l
know it viii be right for my truest well
fare, for the good of all, 1 am salts
fed with this trust Theodore Parker.